Yankees had 61 come from behind wins - that means they were trailing in 122 games this year. That's a lot, isn't it?

John Sterling goes out on a limb: "I'd say Ortiz has been the toughest batter the Yankees have faced all year."

It just cracks me up that one of the Yankees' major radio ad sponsors is Johnnie Cochran.

Brown drills Cabrera to load the bases. Mister Brown is out of town. After 1.1 innings. Hide the walls!

Grand slam Johnny Damon. 6-0 Sox before the Yankees have a hit. Game Seven of the 1934 World Series comes to mind, when the home town Tigers got blown out 11-0 and the Detroit fans started pelting Cardinals left fielder Joe Medwick with bottles, rotten fruit, and auto parts (said Medwick: "I know why they threw it at me. I just don't know why they brought it to the park.").

No hits for the Yanks in the first two innings. Game One comes to mind. The symmetries are hypnotic . . .

Jeter singles in Cairo. 6-1. Meyers and Leskanic are up in the Boston pen already. Get real: 5-run lead, exhausted bullpen. You gotta give Lowe some rope here if you want to win the game.

Lowe gets out of the inning. Pedro is getting ready to get warmed up anyway. All hands on deck.

We know this much: if the Sox win, the odds of Clemens beating the Cards tomorrow increase exponentially.

I guess Johnny Damon's slump is officially over. 8-1 Sox.

Javier Vazquez goes down like a tree struck by lightning!

When you are the Red Sox playing the Yankees, leaving the bases loaded with a 7-run lead feels like cause for genuine concern, rather than pure piggishness. It's not paranoia when they are really out to get you.

Olerud whiffs, Lofton on second, two outs. Crowd chanting "Who's Your Daddy" over and over and over.

Bellhorn homers, 9-3. People are starting, slowly, to realize why Bellhorn was one of the stars of the Red Sox this season. Homer is reminiscent of Strawberry's homer off Al Nipper in Game 7 in the 1986 World Series.

Al Leiter apparently said on TV that Pedro wanted in. Um, who is the manager?

I hear "Let's Go Red Sox" chants as Timlin sets them down in the 8th. Where are the Yankee fans?

Cabrera hits a sac fly off Gordon to make it 10-3; Gordon needs the winter to rest. Mariano's coming in, for the same reason Gagne was on the mound at the end of the Cards-Dodgers season; why not go down with your best guy, no matter how hopeless the odds?

This still seems like it can't be happening.

Well, it's over. The Yankees Lose! Theeeee Yankees Lose! The Sox have extracted revenge for last season; the Yankees, gigantic payroll, stacked roster and all, have choked in a way no baseball team has ever choked. The series starts Saturday at Fenway.

The story of the 2004 Yankees is a remarkably simple one. The Yankees' team ERA after the All-Star break was 4.95, putting stress on the team's top relievers to keep them in games. Rivera, Gordon and Quantrill combined to throw 111.2 innings in 107 appearances in 76 games after the break. None of the three were as effective in the ALCS as you'd like; Gordon and Quantrill were terrible, and Rivera mortal. And Brown and Vazquez, the Yankee starters who collapsed in the second half after looking like their 1-2 punch early on, were shelled in this series. That's all you need to know.

I think Pedro was warmed up and scheduled to get his IP in and they had already told him he'd go game three of the WS. So at that point it was use Pedro or loose him, I don't think the outing effectied is availability.

Boston media has Wake starting game 1. If Clemens wins we'll have Clemens v Pedro in the WS game 3 in an NL park. What are the chances they just start drilling each other?

What killed, killed, KILLED the Yankees was the bone-headed decision to let Andy Pettitte slip away. How many times has he delivered in the postseason for them? And now, against the Sox, with a lineup full of left-handed hitters (or switch-hitters who are stronger lefty), the Yanks had nothing.

I'm a lifelong Yankee-hater, but I was shocked by Steinbrenner's complete lack of appreciation for a player he should have done everything in his power to keep.